Back to home
All News: (Newest at top)

Well, as promised, I've been working like crazy on this init replacement...

...prepare to be slightly amazed!

It now supports at least as many functions as busybox's init, it runs in less nonshared ram (128kb vs. 134), and more!

Normally, I'd be working on the actual release right now - too bad, you'll have to wait a while for that. My desktop (also main building machine) was on the AMD stock heatsink, the fan died, fortunately it hit the BIOS cutoff temperature of 85 celsius...

I'll release as soon as I get the "final" binaries on to all three of my test boxes.

this will be release version 1.00. When I get some sort of X working (probably kdrive), version 2.00 will happen.

And of course, I'm switching the shell from bash to busybox's ash... no more segfaults!
Well, thank deity, school is over for the year, the programming season has begun, and I just ordered Orange Box!

So I promised I would start working on the "major poly-p-ux redux" over summer - well, I've actually been working on it for a while. In fact, I have a well-working init system already in place. All that I must do now is reduce memory usage (I've dumped bash, zsh is huge and awkward, I'll use busybox's dash. Oh, and make it so every respawn process doesn't need a shell guiding it :D) My goal - 2mb of usage on startup. However, once I get it down to 3 (and it works on my 386 laptop), I'll release.

What should you expect? Greatness:
Hope to release soon!
I'm not dead yet!

School has been pretty time-consuming lately, what with summer nearing. I really have not had much time to work on poly-p-ux.

This three-day weekend is a good place to start, and after school is over, be prepared for lots of work on this.

What are my plans? Well, first off, I want to totally redo most of the system. In order to avoid the random segfaults that are plaguing me, I'll just rewrite the whole init system, probably in bash. Sure, it'll take a while, and it only might come out as well as "real" init implementations, but I'll have full control.

Also, I'm planning on phasing out other parts of busybox in favor of bash scripts that do the same thing. In other words, I'm planning to make poly-p-ux the lean, mean, bash-script machine it should be. And, I (and you) will have full control over all the system's bash scripts. This means customizability and ease of debugging.

For now, use the versions in existance (sorry about the lack of the 386 version - the copy I tried to make crashed my build machine when I chrooted into it), and join the mailing list if you want to get involved.
Well, as promised, here's poly-p-ux version 0.01 for the 586! Keep in mind that the 0.01 has NOTHING to do with the 0.01 486 release, so 0.01-586 is actually slightly more up-to-date than 0.20-486. Just use the busybox update (which will hit the site later today, probably), and you'll be most of the way there.

Use the documentation and download links to get it.
Well, as you may have noticed, there's a tip-of-the week link up top. Follow it for some cool stuff!

As for poly-p-ux itself, I've uploaded all the correct files, I just need to fix the links on the website - Not only is the 0.01 release of the 586 version of poly-p-ux ready, so is the busybox update (to 0.10.0) for 486's.
Aw, what the hell. 0.20 is now stable. After all, it's not like I'm going to change the release *now* :D .

I have been noticing a weird segfault whenever certain shell scripts are run. That should get fixed in the near future. Also, if I get bored tonight, I'll hack together new networking scripts to make everyone's lives easier.

For now, you can ssh into your favorite server and run some web browser from there, you can play adventure, or you could figure out how to use the framebuffer :D .
0.20 is *almost* stable-ready! I have successfully compiled all of the packages that were present for 0.03 AND MORE for 0.20! In fact, I'm writing this using vim on an ssh connection (to the ibibilo server) FROM MY 486!

Exciting stuff. Now it's time to write up documentation (uggh).
Bsd-games has officially been compiled for poly-p-ux! bsd-games version 2.17 is now available for 0.20 - check the packages directory in my ftp space. As soon as all the packages from 0.03 are recompiled for 0.20, and I add the recent changes to the documentation, I'll declare 0.20 stable, and replacing 0.03.

For now, have fun playing tetris-bsd!

NB: I have NOT included atc (build errors), hunt (build errors), factor (other implementations availbe, not to mention strange dependencies), and fortune (better implementation available).
I am in the process of releasing 0.20 (Don't worry - I'm not dead, just lazy). Currently, I'm working on shifting everything to keep the 0.03 stuff seperate from the new stuff. As you can see, I've already begun that organization in the ftp directory.

What's new in 0.20? Well, I can actually tell you since I have it compiled (but barely tested). The first thing you'll notice is the new 2.6.24.3 kernel (Yay, no vmsplice exploits for us!), this time compiled with EVEN MORE MODULES (for advanced configuribility), and fb support! Apologies to FreeBSoD: I forgot to apply the /dev/one patch yet again. I'll remember next time, I promise! Also new is: /dev/fd0, WCHAR/locale support in uclibc, a new method of building toolchain installs (I'll FINALLY be able to compile bsd-games!), an almost-improved module autoload feature (Well, it was *almost* cool...), and a vastly improved (read: buggy) network system.

I certainly hope to get some sort of X and a few games up for this version, ASAP. I'm working (eventually) towards all the useful/fun features of RedHat 3.0.3 and slackware 11.0 combined, in a smaller space, which is very possible.

Okay, so you're probably wondering two things: why would I suddenly wake from my sleep as far as the project is concerned, and why 0.20? Well, to answer your first question, I needed a print server, and FAST. It turned out that the parallel port header for my new computer came in before I got a chance to finish getting cups on poly-p-ux, but that's why I had to quick-compile a bunch of stuff. Why 0.20 and not 0.10 or 0.04? Well, I had a version compiling that was *potentially* binary-incompatible with 0.03, not to mention touting a bunch of new features. Well, on my computer, at least, that became 0.10. I installed it to my 486, and realized how awful it was. My oh-so-cool modules.autoload feature was completely broken, my network system was intermitten, and it was overall a failure. It did have some good ideas, though. Those were expressed, after a long break (sorry!) from poly-p-ux, in 0.20, the next major version after an unreleased one.

When will you see it? Well, I'm putting it on the shelf by tonight, so you'll be able to find it in the 0.20 directory of my ftp space, probably by the time you read this! It will be, though, only the base system. Packages will come later, after I've had a go at testing the version. Oh, and as I'm writing this, I can think of a few problems with what's in the tarball that are quick and easy-to-fix. Basically, you can try it out now, but it might be slightly different by the time it is officially released. Oh, and I won't update the documentation until the very end, and although it's mostly the same as from 0.03, there are some differences. Figure it out yourself, and don't bother me if you're installing 0.20.
There are now packages for miscfiles, tnftp, zlib, and dropbear. Check 'em out!
poly-p-ux 0.03 has been released. The only major changes are the missing packages (dropbear, mostly) from the stages. There are now packages for these in the packages/ directory in my ftp space. See Download for details. And upgrade, if you're one of the few people who have installed 0.02 already.